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‘The Mindy Project’ Season 4 Episode 1 Recap: “While I Was Sleeping”

Even though The Mindy Project has moved platforms from FOX to Hulu, it doesn’t mean it’s not the same witty and heartfelt show we’ve grown to love. On the plus side, we get 5 additional minutes to every episode!

The episode starts off exactly where the Season 3 finale ended: with Danny arriving at where Mindy’s parents are staying in India. He professes his love for Mindy to the man he assumes to be Mindy’s father, but it’s actually just the servant of the house. When he then meets the real Mr. Lahiri (Ajay Mehta), he becomes intimidated and makes the excuse that he’s only in India to sight-see.

Meanwhile, Mindy ends her call with Morgan (if you remember, they were talking about Danny not having gotten to the wedding from last season) terrified that Danny’s ditched her to go be with another woman.

Before she gets into bed, she wishes that she had fallen in love with someone else.

Mindy still works at Schulman and Associates, but her relationship with Danny is pretty much the same as Season 1’s, or in Dream Danny’s words, “Bad. Frosty, hostile, did I say bad?”

When Mindy finds out that she’s been cheating on her Dream husband with Dr. Brendan Deslaurier, she decides to come clean. Much to her surprise, she hasn’t been the only one cheating. Her relationship with Matt is an open one.

Out of desperation, Mindy seeks Danny out, only to find him on a date with Freida Pinto. After she won’t leave, Mindy announces to the restaurant that she’s pregnant with Danny’s baby.

Although Mindy’s still in her dream-world, Danny’s in the real life. After he meets Mindy’s aspiring-Bollywood-actress mother (House of Cards‘ Sakina Jaffrey), they present him with the news that they’re planning an arranged marriage for Mindy. Yikes.

In a quite cowardly move, Danny goes along with it instead of just speaking up. He’s rejected all the men in the binder Mindy’s parents have created when Morgan shows up. Morgan’s so furious that Danny won’t propose to Mindy that he goes ahead and invites one of the men, Sendhil (played by Kunal Nayyar of The Big Bang Theory), from the binder to come over.

Danny gets so worked up at listening to how perfect Sendhil is for Mindy that he finally confesses that he’s the father of Mindy’s baby, but he doesn’t exactly want to propose to her.

When Sendhil hears that Mindy’s pregnant, he gets angry at Morgan for lying to him and says he wanted a “lemon.” Both of Mindy’s parents are appalled that he would compare Mindy to a fruit that they band together and explain why she’s turned out to be so great and successful and that’s because they are.

When Danny sees how much they care about each other and how they support each other, it opens something in him. Mindy’s parents tell him that as long as he goes and takes care of their daughter, they’re alright with him. He just has to stop worrying so much about the relationship and actually just enjoy it. He can call it whatever he wants to.

Going back to Mindy’s dream sequence, she and Danny are now both outside of the restaurant in the rain. As Mindy’s asking him why he didn’t get out of his seat and kiss her on the plane, we see clips of what happened in the real world. Matt walked out of the restroom to see Danny and Mindy kissing. Danny was afraid that Mindy would eventually cheat on him in the same way she does with Matt. She kisses him in an attempt to show him that they’re meant to be together, but he pushes her away. He then very passionately kisses her again, but stops himself. As he’s walking across the street, trying to get away, Mindy’s yelling at him that she wants him…and then gets hit by a bus.

Mindy wakes up in the real world to find Danny at her bedside. They both agree that they just want to be together, married or not.

But Danny’s had a change of heart. After seeing how much Mindy’s parents still love each other after 40 years and after having an arranged marriage, it’s given him hope that maybe not all marriages end badly.

And so, he proposes to Mindy and she accepts.

I typed this very simply, but believe me, I had tears in my eyes.

Notes

Even with the simple recap at the beginning of the episode, I had forgotten how much I liked to look at Chris Messina’s face. Whoa.

I like that in her dream sequence, Mindy wakes up with her face glowing with makeup.

“You hungry, babe?” “Yes, always.” I am Mindy. Mindy is me.

For some reason, Morgan’s reason for being in a wheelchair is hilarious to me.

Mindy has a Bart Simpson tattoo? Where?!

“Is it the ‘Big Book of American Losers?’ I’m on page 275.” – Morgan

“Ugh these chips are terrible!” “Oh, babe, that’s a bowl of seashells.” – Mindy and Matt

“It was like It’s a Wonderful Life, but it was in color and it wasn’t boring.” – Mindy